Blue Zone Power Cut
Description When Amber is seventeen and living on Teen level, a few days before Carnival, there is a major powercut affecting all 150 levels of Blue Zone. The events leading up to this, and during the power cut, form the plot of the prequel book, Perilous. The power cut is mentioned in several of the subsequent books as well. What Happens In Defender, long afterwards, Amber learns that the Blue Zone powercut was caused by a target who was about to be arrested by Mira's strike team when he killed himself by jumping into the Blue Zone power nexus. This led to a powercut all across Blue Zone, with multiple casualties. The emergency plans of the Hive went into effect, and the adjacent zones send essential power and air to the designated emergency spots, which turn out to be the parks in blue zone (the lakes are the emergency water supply.) Despite working day and night, it took the Hive over two days to restore power to the Blue Zone. During the power cut, emergency services were overwhelmed and hampered by the lack of transport and light. Summary Perilous Amber is resting in her sleep field when it suddenly fails and she falls onto the floor and is bruised. Her teen group gather in the corridor, expecting the light to come right back as it always has in the past, but when ten minutes pass in the dark, Atticus takes charge. He is the deputy Emergency Warden, and has been trained for this - the main Warden, Forge, is absent, so he deputizes Amber to assist him. He knows she is not afraid of the dark, unlike most teens in the Hive. Amber is aware that Forge is lost somewhere in the maintenance crawlways and worries about him. The rescue operations directed by Atticus and another girl from a different corridor who has to take charge of the whole area, are made more difficult by the antics of the group's bully, Reece. He dresses up as the Hunter of Souls and frightens the others. This causes Linnette to run away and break her leg. When the rest of the group move to the park, Amber volunteers to stay behind and then against orders, actually searches for her lost friend. She manages to save both Linnette and Forge, and they all arrive at the park, where her friend Shanna has in the meantime organised a Carnival party. Defender Amber learns what caused the powercut, and works with her team to prevent even worse damage to the Hive's power supply. One of the pilots who assist in the Light Angel mission has a husband who was badly hurt in the Blue Zone Power cut. Hurricane Amber learns that some of the victims of the power cut were so traumatized by the experience that they could no longer live in the Hive and had to be sent to the Haven, the miniature Hive near the Sea Farm. Borderline One of the new characters in this book, Michaela, had been badly affected by the Blue Zone power cut, when she was stuck all alone in a lift, in the dark, for over forty hours. She needed therapy and had a relapse shortly before Lottery, when someone shut her in a dark closet. That made it impossible for her to go through Lottery at that time. References